New Years Day - Open House Tailgate

Every year (well, for the last 3 years) Suz hosts an open house/football party on New Years Day.  It's a "come on by, say hello, have a snack and watch some football" event...basically it's an indoor tailgate.

The size of the crowd varies but she always sets out an awesome spread (again, much like a tailgate) - This year the desserts took center stage.  There were lemon curd tarts (the yellow was nullified by the addition of blueberries and blackberries - so no blame there); a cake (see below); cookies; gingerbread; chocolate pops; and more.

Here are a few pictures of the dessert table...

Yes.  That is the cake.  A football trophy.  We've had this (nordicware) cake pan for a while - but I hadn't tried it before.  For the first 67% of the preparation time I was really annoyed with myself that I had tried something new - but the end result was pretty cool - I embellished it with dark blue piped roses.

Suz took the chocolate pops to a new level - by making navy and white paw prints and

navy roses.  She even wrapped the "stems" with floral tape.

The main "spread" included:  pork and sauerkraut (of course); beef caprese picks (don't hate on the tomatoes); burnt kielbasa; bacon wrapped mini franks; lil' smokies in biscuits; marinated feta; olive tapenade; white bean dip; a huge ante pasta platter; meats and cheeses; chips, dips, pretzels and crackers; warm spinach dip; ham spirals; cheese straws; buffalo wings; and more.

I'll post a few more pix later - but for now...